A tall thin man with a tanning bed tan dressed immaculately, and there hawkish features are twisted in horror. this is Paul Smithers, Johns best friend whos standing a few feet to the left. The two young men one tall chemicaly tanned and all bones, and the other as average as any person can be all brown hiat, brown eyes, and pale skin that finaly sucommed to the suns attempt to darken it.
The two men stand stareing at a darkened building one that at some point had a red roof and was filled with the smell of pizza 23/7 is now closed. Paul makes his thoughts know "NooooOOOoOOOooo, what why I know the towns going downhill but this place was the last place i expected to go" after his release of despair ends leaving John hand traceing the words of a paper notice with face covered in tired acceptance replys " well it says they closed yesterday because old Steves got meta'ed and can now do the work of ten men, so he moved to New Nova City". Paul not being the kind of guy to hide there heart with John fires back his first thought "do ya think he became a doughakinetic, like controls bread with his brain" throwing his lanky frame over a bench built into the ground with a huff " eh doesn't change what I need to ask you" and pats on the space next to him. John follows his friend onto the bench " let me guess you want to know about how some drunk smashed there new truck into my car, and the hospital somehow got my signature onto a piece of paper saying I consent to some new uber expensive surgery, and i get all of my bones not broken in a week instead of months." followed by a soft huff and a small smirk. The response from Paul threw John for a loop " we knew that already and now I am here to help you help me, help you. My work has manpower issues so bad I got to recommend you for recruitment" Paul slips into his work face all smiles and no soul. And with a brow riseing john deadpans his response "Pay, Risk , and we?" and with that paul shoots back with a note containing a dollar sign and quite a few zeros pulled from his breast pocket and "enough, less then asbestos, and my employers who remain anonymous for everyone's safety. and don't worry it's not illegal as far in that no one's made any laws yet". "and what would I do" said john. Paul stands straightens his shirt takes three steps away and responds "you patch the holes in the bachelor pads of the rich, powerful and powered, in essence my dude you undo the battle damage that happens in the bases of super people". and that leaves john to think.
John looks straight unblinking using the window of the stores across the road as a mirror he looks small, even compared to the narrow brick restaurant. He sighs looks to Paul and says "If I didn't know you were on my side I would think I would be making a deal with the devil, but you know if you screwed me I would tell you mom and we both know what comes from that. now hand over the contract." Paul smiles shrugs and says, "Contracts are done at the start of the two-week training period, but before that you got to complete a test, what's called the high stress incident test, don't worry I brought burn gel for the lasers." the air hums. John stands and sees two flying drones, the main body is shaped almost like a crab, wide and flat. The drones are dropping from behind the sign for Pizza Steves and hover 4 feet from the ground on twin propellers attached to the torso sized body on two jointed arms sticking from the sides. John freezes, but his body isn't sitting idle eyes dilate, breath deepens, and blood overflowing with oxygen goes to the extremity's. Ah wonderful John is panicking and has stopped moving, which is bad because the glowing red eye in the middle of the flying drones is glowing red, and with a pop of expanding air John's hit with a laser. He runs around the corner of Pizza Steves, its thick brick walls providing cover from the blast sent from the second drone, an animalistic panic sets over. The all-encompassing fear disappears, sucked into the hole that John put all the emotions he can't deal with leaving him cold both from the fact that he is losing body heat, and from the metaphorical calculating part of John taking over. First order of business he looks over his shoulder for pursuit, none there just staring at the corner, John can tell because he is using the front windows of the other stores around as mirrors its surprisingly easy to look around that corner. Step two John puts on speed his run turns into a sprint legs extending as far as possible and pushing at one hundred and four percent strength to eat up the ground, turning to follow the back wall pass by the garbage can that's still there which is now missing its metal lid. Next turn he runs faster, and faster, and just a tiny bit faster his joints groan, three turn down one to go. Once again use the same window John used for his deep thought about his place in the world to make sure the drones are being stupid. and he twists his upper body counterclockwise. Step around the last part of wall, and throw the trash lid, the circular motion is used to turn himself and preserve speed. with a crash and a Screeetch the farthest drone has its right set of propellers torn off. The most obvious problem of propellers that make them worse then some sort of hover engine is that there exposed which john just exploited also the second problem they only push in one direction and John is now going to use just that fact. He dashes behind the last drone and heaves, hands smashing into the bottom rear edge of its crab like body, it try's to rotate its arms to stay up but the flip frontward is too fast. with a satisfying smash the front laser eye is rendered a powder. The victor is John and a stunned Paul as his witness who ever so elegantly sums up his unique perspective " What, THE, fuck. you you you, just won. everyone else would run or surrender, or anything else, even some of the powered people didn't win." John send his metalic foes off with a one finger salute then promptly passes out.
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